In what could likely be one of the last ever Nazi war crime trials, Heinrich Boere, 88, is on trial in Aachen, Germany for killing three civilians in the Netherlands in 1944, when Germany occupied the Dutch state. Boere is a former Waffen-SS.

But, like the trial of another suspected Nazi war criminal, John Demjanjuk, 89, Boere’s case is not without setbacks.

Boere contests that since he was convicted of the murders in absentia in the Netherlands in 1949, he cannot be tried again. In that case he was sentenced to death; however the death penalty was formally abolished in the country in 1991 and his sentence was commuted to life. He says that the European Union has laws against trying someone twice for the same crime.

The court in Aachen is expected to make a decision regarding the double-jeopardy claim next week. The trial could resume as early as November 17 if the court rules against Boere.

In another setback to the trial, Boere, who must wear a hearing aid, had difficulty hearing testimony this week. The trial was delayed, despite prosecution’s accusations that the defense was merely attempting to stall justice.

Boere is not in custody during the court proceedings.

John Demjanjuk, suspected in the accessory to the murders of 27,900 inmates at the Sobibor extermination came, is expected to go on trial on November 30.

In Jerusalem Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center said these trials send “a very powerful message that the passage of time in no way diminishes the guilt of murderers and that old age should not protect the killers of civilians."

examiner.com